Centurion MBT
The '''Centurion Main Battle Tank (MBT) '''is one of the most numerically important tanks within the New Commonwealth armed forces in the immediate post-war period up until the late 1970s with some continuing on until the '91 Disaster albeit in secondary supporting roles. Design The development of the Centurion Main Battle Tank began in 1943 when the British Army asked for a new cruiser tank equipped with at least a 17-pounder gun. They wanted a fast tank that, even though heavily armored, would perform well in cross-country travel. The Centurion Main Battle Tank weighed 42.5 tons. It was equipped with a 17-pounder 76.5mm gun that had a muzzle velocity of 2,950 feet per second. When the Centurion Mark 3 was developed, it was equipped with an 83.4mm, or 20-pounder, gun and was the most heavily armed tank of its category in the immediate postwar years. But strangely enough, neither the tank's design nor even its gun design, was responsible for this. The Centurion 3 fired a new round that used a narrow diameter, finned, solid steel spike, or arrow, that was wrapped in a light metal jacket to give it the same diameter as the bore. This new round was called an armor-piercing, discarding sabot (APDS) round, and it left the muzzle of the 20 pounder at 4,800 feet per second. It could penetrate twice as much armor as the 88mm gun. The Centurion Main Battle Tank 5, 6, 7, and 8 models were successively up-armored and up-gunned with the 105mm L7 series of guns. The final version, the Centurion 13, was equipped with the 105mm L7A2 gun. The L7A2 main gun had an effective range of 1,968 yards when using armor-piercing, discarding sabot rounds and 4,374 yards when using high-explosive squash head rounds. Trained crews could fire up to eight rounds per minute. The Centurion was powered by a 600-horsepower Rolls Royce Merlin Meteor V-12 engine.The Centurion Main Battle Tank's hull was divided into the usual three compartments. The driver's compartment was in front; the fighting compartment was in the center. The engine compartment was in the rear and separated from the other two compartments by a fireproof wall. The engine and transmission drove the rear sprockets. A Horst-mann-type suspension system was used, in which three units on a side each hold two road wheels on one set of concentric springs. Six return rollers were employed, but these were hard to see on the later model tanks since skirt armor for protection against high-explosive, antitank projectiles covered most of the tread. The commander and gunner were seated on the right side of the turret; the loader on the left. The commander had a cupola that could be turned in a complete circle independently of the turret. The gunner's station had a periscope sight with aiming devices that were linked to the commander's station. The loader's station had twin hatch covers and a periscope. Operational History Falkland Islands Centurions of several New Commonwealth armies served in the liberation of the Falkland Islands in 1982. Britain only used small numbers of the Centurion AVRE version while both Canada and New Zealand landed thirty and twelve Centurion 13s respectively. They were operated in the fire support role but also assisted in the logistics operation. On May 30th three Canadian Centurions engaged an Argentine Marine convoy consisting of five trucks (including three ex-civilian vehicles stolen from the islanders) and escorted by three LVTP-7 amphibious APCs near Port Stevens. The Centurions opened fire destroying the three LTVP-7s and wo of the vehicles. The three remaining trucks managed to escape back to the Argentine held port. Chile Although the Chieftain MBT saw the brunt of the fighting in Chile following the liberation of the Falkland Islands Centurions still played a vital infantry support role. Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia all contributed Centurions to the invasion of Argentina. Because of their infantry support role the Centurions did not see any combat against Argentine armoured units but were responsible for destroying over five hundred vehicles of various types. Angola The Centurion was at the forefront of the fight against Communist inurgents in Namibia and Angola it being used predominantly by Namibian, Rhodesian and South African forces. The Centurions proved formidable to the enmy being able to bring superior firepower against enemy strongholds. Although not ideally suited to the role they did also undertake armed reconnaissance missions and also acted as Forward Air Control (FAC) posts organizing air strikes. Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) were the main threat to the Centurion. The most popular tactic used by the Communist guerillas was to blow off the tracks and then bombard it with whatever explosives they could find. The Commonwealth adapted their tactics to insure that any disabled tank had back up while the crew escaped. Additional armour plating and later Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) tiles were placed on the side skirts. While much of the fighting was in the anti-guerilla role there were occasional examples of conventional combat especially against the Cuban 'advisors'. On August 12th 1981 five upgraded Centurions engaged nine Type 59s backed up by helicopters. The Centurions proved far superior to the Type 59 destroying them without loss. There were sporadic encounters the following year and each time the Commonwealth forces came out on top. Category:Tanks